Selective Attention and Educational Neuroscience: how teachers can change brain circuitry

I will be reviewing research from my group that links educational topics such as learning to read and learning elementary symbolic mathematics to theory and methods in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Specifically I will discuss findings regarding how manipulations of selective attention that are accessible within pedagogy can be understood as driving changes in brain activity within differential circuitry associated with visual symbolic, verbal phonological, and magnitude representations critical to mastering these skills, and critical to understanding individual differences between children who succeed in mastering this skills versus children who perpetually struggle.